History
The game takes place - or at least, begins - in a fictional version of Earth that is not so different from our own... with the notable exception that it has super heroes. And villains. And aliens, mutants, magic, and super science, among other things. The short version is that our world, and this fictional "super" world branched off from one-another somewhere around the late 1930s, for reasons that are yet unknown. Parts of history have remained largely untouched, while others have changed entirely. Here is a short summary of some of those changes in history: World War II and the Steel Sentinel One of the earliest concrete differences in history between the Super World and ours is the way the events of World War II played out: specifically, in the emergence of the world's first true super hero, the Steel Sentinel. When the United States entered World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, they unknowning brought with them a young volunteer recruit with nigh unlimited potential. The Sentinel would change everything, and though his powers were only in their infancy, they were more than enough to rapidly turn the tide of the war handily in the favour of the allies. Unmatched, the Sentinel helped bring about the end of the war by late spring of 1942 - a full three years earlier than in our world - curtailing much of the war's cost and losses, including the worst of the Holocaust. The sheer speed of the Allied victory resulted in the discovery of Hitler's obsession with both fringe science and black magic - reveltations which would radically alter the course of events to come. Magic In our world, magic is merely imaginary, confined to works of fiction and fantasy. However, in the Super World, the existence of magic - very real, actual magic - was revealed to the public in the wake of World War II. Hitler's ultimate plan, it turns out, was much more sinister than genocide alone: he intended to offer the greatest blood sacrifice in the history of mankind, bringing about the end of days, with the Aryan race as the new chosen people. Thankfully, this unholy scheme was foiled, and for the first time in centuries, light was shed on ancient traditions of arcane secrets passed down from generation to generation since the dawn of mankind - or even earlier. But magic had been hidden from mankind for a good reason: power corrupts, and there is no power quite so seductive as raw arcana. Magic became highly sought after, and while some arcane traditions did their best to crawl ever further from the public eye, others decided it was best to reveal themselves and make the best of the situation by using their powers for the greater good. Magic has spread slowly, but steadily over the last seven decades, passed down to those with the right talents, those found to be worthy.. or simply those with enough money to pay. Prominent arcane heroes and heroines, such as Valkyria, have done much to cast a positive light on magic, but it is human nature to fear the unknown, and the public is often quick to blame magic whenever things go wrong. Super Science The war came to such an abrupt end that it took both Axis and Allied powers by surprise. As the Steel Sentinel began to usher in a new era of peace and international cooperation, nations that had built up massive wartime budgets suddenly found themselves with little use for soldiers, ships, and munitions; in large part, these funds were diverted instead to advancements in science and technology. The personal computer became available on the market in 1955; World Wide Web went live in 1959; in 1967, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on Mars; by the mid-1980s, advances in gene therapy provided cures for nearly everything from cancer to influenza; in 1998, Project Mjolnir put an end to most natural disasters, from earthquakes to hurricanes. It is believed that nanotechnology, known as "skinware", will be the next major technological revolution, while the first reasonably-priced flying car is due to hit the market in the third quarter of 2014. These wonderful innovations have not come without a cost, however. Super science has a nasty habit of causing as many problems as it solves. Knowledge itself is neither good, nor inherently evil, and even technologies developed with the purest of intentions can be used for destructive purposes. Many super villains, such as the dreadful Professor Nefarious, have been literally made as a direct result of breakthroughs in super science. Mutants One of the most recent consequences of advances in super science is the appearance of human mutants. Thought to be an unanticipated result of gene therapy in the 80s, mutants are humans who display unusual genetic traits that appear to be inborn, rather than the result of some outside influence after birth. Abilities such as pyrokinesis, telekinesis, telepathy, shapeshifting, and rapid healing - just to name a few - have been observed, and it would seem that no two mutants are alike. Mutations of this sort are thought to be exceedingly rare - perhaps as few as 1 in several million births - but this number is only an estimate, and experts warn that the actual figures could be much higher. Given that most mutants only begin to develop their abilities during or around puberty, and considering the growing stigma surrounding the condition, there could be any number of mutants hiding in the general population. Aliens Humans have long speculated that they are not alone in the universe, but it wasn't until the summer of 1967, shortly after the successful manned mission to Mars, that first contact was made. The Andromedans - strange beings from another galaxy - were the first to approach the people of Earth, and thankfully, they came in peace. However, as it turned out, this was not their first visit to the pale blue dot. The Andromedans first discovered earth roughly 66 million years ago; refugees from a brutal war that laid their native galaxy to waste, they came to the neighbouring Milky Way to begin anew. Unfortunately, they inadvertently brought disaster with them, resulting in the near-total destruction of Earth's inhabitants, the dinosaurs. Frought with guilt and sorrow, the Andromedan king vowed to make amends, and sent his scientists to tinker - ever so slightly, of course - with the genomes of what little life remained on the planet. The result, millions of years later, was the rise of homo sapiens. Fearful of making another genocidal blunder, the Andromedans lobbied for a key amendment Subsection 17 of the Interstellar Accord - the laws governing the actions of all sentient, interstellar species in the galaxy. Subsection 17 states that any planet on which life is found may be directly interfered with; furthermore, to ensure this protection, each such planet is assigned two guardian races responsible for that planet's defense. Should either race break their oath of protection, posession of the planet would immediatley fall into the hands of the other. In the case of Earth - or, as it is properly known to other alien races, "Sol Prime" - guardianship fell to the benevolent Andromedans, and the unpredictable Centauri. Whereas the Andromedans resemble handsome humans (in fact, thanks to their genetic tampering, it's the other way around), the Centauri are small, hairless, grey-skinned beings, with glassy black eyes. Earth's nearest neighbours from just over 4 lightyears away, the Centauri are very recent signatories of the Interstellar Accord. Untrusting and powerthirsty, they have long coveted the Sol system for its wealth of natural resources. For centuries they have attempted to circumvent Subsection 17, and are constantly pushing the definition of "interference". Princess Fiara, daughter of the current Andromedan King, is a founding member of the Hero Society of Earth, and is the official Andromedan ambassador to Sol Prime. The Death of the Steel Sentinel, and the Founding of the Hero Society of Earth For decades after the war, the Steel Sentinel was the only hero the world seemed to need. Even as knowledge of magic spread, super science reached new heights, and as alien races made themselves known, the people of Earth slept soundly in the comfort of knowing that the Sentiel would be there to protect them from any harm that could come their way. Until, one day, when he wasn't. The first sign that something was wrong was when a routine heist at the Liberation Mint went off without a hitch. Despite a sizeable police response, the masked criminals made off with a fortune in gold bars, and Sentinel was nowhere to be seen. Rumours of his death began to spread through the city, and soon villains were lining up to take the credit. As hours turned into days without so much as a sighting of Earth's champion, people began to panic. A crime wave soon broke out - suddenly it was open season for every two bit crook in town. Worse yet, infighting rapidly broke out among the villains as each vied for a position of dominance in the massive power vaccum that had been left in the Sentinel's wake. It was two days after the Sentinel's disappearance that the body of a homeless man was found in an alleyway; beneath his tattered clothing he wore the uniform of the Steel Sentinel.